It is a practice in the brewing industry to transport and sell beer in large metal kegs or containers from which the beer is dispensed by means of a tap, or other flow regulating device, attached to a central opening in one end of the keg. Beer kegs or barrels generally come in several sizes, a predominant size being a half keg of 151/2 gallons which when filled weighs approximately 170 pounds. In use, beer kegs are placed in a cooled environment, "tapped" with a valved dispenser, and the contents generally maintained under pressure to facilitate dispensing the beer. Empty beer kegs are returned to the brewery for washing, sterilization, and refilling for subsequent distribution of beer to customers.
Most metal beer kegs are generally cylindrical in shape and have outwardly curved end walls protected by depending circular metal skirts having reinforcing chimes, or rims. The skirts extend generally from about 3 to 5 inches beyond the curved end walls of the keg to protect the end walls and the beer-dispensing opening, and to reinforce and strengthen the overall keg construction. Oppositely disposed hand holes may be provided in the keg skirt at the upper end of the keg to facilitate handling. Certain other keg constructions having a metallic main body are provided with molded plastic polyurethane end skirts to protect the ends of the keg during handling and use.
Because of the relatively heavy weight of filled beer kegs, the kegs are often subject to rough handling in loading and unloading operations. On occasion, the kegs may be dropped onto a hard support surface, such as a concrete floor causing portions of the depending metal end skirts of the keg to be bent inwardly when the skirt rim strikes the hard surface. Bent metal skirts create a safety hazard in handling and may not provide stable support when a keg is placed end up on a flat surface for storage or dispensing of beer. In addition, during keg cleaning and refilling operations, it is a practice to convey the kegs end up on a moving conveyor as the interior of the kegs are washed, sterilized, and refilled with beer. These operations are accomplished by the insertion of probes into the end openings of the kegs as they are supported on the conveyor. It is thus desirable that bent metal skirt portions of the beer kegs be straight so that the rims of the skirts lie in a common plane and in circular disposition to ensure proper alignment of the keg openings with the cleaning and filling probes.
It has been a practice to straighten bent metal end skirt portions of beer kegs. Heretofore, keg skirt straightening devices have been semi-automatic in operation, requiring manual insertion of each end skirt of a keg into the straightening device for performance of the restraightening operation. In some instances, bent metal skirts of kegs have been straightened by means of a two member expander mechanism which is inserted into the opening of a skirt of the keg. One of the expander members is engaged with an interior wall portion of the skirt and the other moves to engage an opposite interior wall portion of the skirt to push bends in the skirt outwardly into a circular configuration. It is also understood that there are also keg skirt straightening devices which rotate the keg between rollers which press against opposite sides of the skirt to straighten the same.
More recently, certain of the semi-automatic straightening devices have included a circular clamping ring into which an end of the keg with its skirt portion is inserted, and a central expander mechanism consisting of three arcuately spaced elements which move radially outward to engage and straighten inwardly bent portions of the skirt at spaced locations about the skirt.